OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
Category: Archive

Well done, lads

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

They were the 16 “nations” that participated in the preliminary rounds of the inaugural Copa NYC at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, on July 25-26. The soccer tournament’s tagline virtually wrote itself: “The world’s sport in the world’s city.” When the early stages were over, there were four teams left to fight it out at the Metropolitan Oval, also in Queens, on the first Saturday in August and they were whittled down to two for the Sunday evening final — Albania and Ireland. Albania won, as our readers will know by now.
In any case, both teams were invited to meet Mayor Michael Bloomberg last Thursday on the steps of City Hall, and were later given a tour of the landmark building. They were joined by ESPN commentator and Ireland NYC president Tommy Smyth and tournament organizer Spencer Dormitzer. It was a nice acknowledgement of the people who play sport to a high standard, but with little or no reward other than the enjoyment of playing, especially in this era when so many professional sports stars receive ludicrously high salaries.
It was also a moment to celebrate New York’s remarkable diversity. We Irish have Gaelic football and hurling, which help define us – and, indeed, which are unique to us — just as some other communities are defined in part by their passion for cricket. But association football, or soccer, has the potential to be a great unifier across cultures. We can see that at times during the World Cup, which has surpassed the Olympics Games as the greatest sports tournament on the planet. But we witnessed it at a more fundamental and grassroots level in New York in recent weeks.
Ireland NYC, coached by Paul Doherty, had their big night in the semifinal by knocking out the much-fancied Cyprus, whose team was based around the Pancyprian Freedoms, one of America’s top amateur teams. The Cypriots had knocked out England in the quarterfinals with a 2-0 result. In the semi, the evenly-match teams were still tied after 120 minutes of play. But then the Irish players handsomely won the penalty shootout, with the goalie Alan Reilly saving two and all four kickers — Sean Purcell, Pat Kelly, Conor Hunter and Alan O’Hara — doing their job.
Many of the Irish players didn’t get home until well after midnight. They then had to face a tough Albania on Sunday, who had finished their 90-minute semifinal a full three hours earlier on Saturday.
It can be heartbreaking to lose a final, but there were many positives for the Irish squad. They participated with passion and commitment and contributed in no small part to the overall success of this inaugural tournament. As always, Irish fans were there in force, but next year the word will be out earlier and there’ll be many more.
There will likely be more teams, too, but the Irish have learnt a great deal from this experience and, we’ve no doubt they’ll be in the mix again in 2010
Another bright note was the cooperation among the Irish themselves. As Doherty said at the outset, it was the first time in 11 years that the Irish-dominated clubs — primarily the Bronx-based Lansdowne Bhoys, Shamrock FC of Sunnyside, which celebrates its 50-year anniversary in 2010, and the Irish Rovers on Long Island — had cooperated.
Well done to everyone concerned. We’re looking forward to next summer already.

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